Looking at the growth trend of these coffee trees and the surrounding environment, there are vague signs of artificial planting, but it may be that they have not been taken care of for too long, and these coffee trees have degenerated into uneven wild varieties.
Gao Guoqing's assistant was Sun Dahai's guide when he came here last time. He was a know-it-all in the local area.
He introduced to Gao Guoqing that before liberation, it was occupied by a French missionary as his private coffee plantation.
However, due to the altitude of nearly 2,000 meters, the coffee trees planted here matured late and had extremely low yields, so they were abandoned by the missionaries after a few years.
The town had a small population at that time, so the missionary hired people from the town to help him take care of the coffee trees. Especially during the picking season, he would hire a large number of people to work in the mountains, so everyone in the town knew that there was coffee here.
Tree.
A few years later, the missionaries abandoned this place and the townspeople stopped coming here.
Fresh coffee berries will not taste good if they are not processed. Moreover, as a luxury product with a very small audience at that time, the townspeople had no relevant sales channels at all.
In that era when wars were going on everywhere and having enough food was a problem, who would travel over the mountains and ridges to come here?
As for the reason why this place was abandoned, everyone has heard about it. Gao Guoqing’s assistant’s family has lived in the town for several generations, so of course he knows it well. So before Gao Guoqing could ask questions, he told everything he knew.
.
In fact, Dian Province has been planning to engage in commercial coffee cultivation since 1985. The Simao area's altitude, climate characteristics and other natural conditions are very suitable, so it is a key area for coffee cultivation in the province.
The county has also established several coffee plantations, one of which is within the jurisdiction of the town. However, it is not in this direction, but in the opposite direction of the town.
Everyone knows why the coffee plantations here were abandoned, and they all agree that this is not suitable for growing coffee.
Therefore, when the staff of the town government selected the site for the coffee plantation, not only did they not take this place into consideration, but they subconsciously avoided it.
Anyway, the town is surrounded by mountains. If you think about it carefully, there are many places suitable for growing coffee.
Gao Guoqing is a top student of Agricultural University who graduated in the 1960s, with a serious academic background. Although he has never grown coffee, he still has some knowledge about coffee.
After listening to the assistant's introduction, he became very interested in this place.
Gao Guoqing did not think that the French missionary just had a hothead and went to the mountains and spent several years paying people to plant coffee trees.
Natural factors such as the environment and climate here must have been taken into consideration. As for the low yield, there are too many reasons. Problems in selecting varieties and adaptability may all cause the yield of coffee berries to decrease.
Gao Guoqing looked at the wild coffee trees in front of him as if he were looking at a treasure. He studied plants, so he naturally understood that after several generations of natural reproduction, these coffee trees have been integrated into the environment.
If these trees are used as female parents and crossed with high-quality and high-yielding coffee varieties, it is very possible to cultivate high-quality coffee varieties that are suitable for local natural conditions.
Therefore, Gao Guoqing arranged for people to sample the soil composition and water quality of these mountains, and picked some ripe coffee berries and branches and leaves, and brought them back together for testing.
After seeking permission from the company, he invited two experts on coffee from Xiangjiang through the company to analyze the samples and conduct an on-site inspection of the former coffee plantation.
…
Just when Chen Feng and the others were gathering in Sun Dahai's room and chatting about their experience on board the Future, Gao Guoqing's call came directly to them.
Fortunately, he was also from Jiahua Investment Company, otherwise the manual operator at the Villa would not have transferred his call to Sun Dahai's room.
Because Sun Dahai did not move according to the schedule of the large army, he simply did not stay in the guest room in the main building. Instead, he took his friends and stayed in two wooden houses in the wooden house area in the forest next to them.
Gao Guoqing called to announce the good news. After preliminary analysis by two experts, they agreed that the wild coffee tree discovered by Gao Guoqing had become a brand new variety of coffee tree.
This new variant of the coffee tree has basically stabilized its genes after decades of natural reproduction and multiple generations.
At the same time, it is extremely adaptable to local natural conditions, so it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a new local species.
After simple calculations, the yield of a single fresh coffee plant (coffee berry) of this new coffee variant is 10 to 30 kilograms, which is less than half or even one-third of the yield of the coffee varieties currently being promoted in Yunnan Province.
However, after the coffee berries sampled by Gao Guoqing were roasted, they had natural and transparent acidity, a mellow and rich taste, moderate bitterness and sweetness, and had the characteristics of top-grade coffee beans.
Moreover, the coffee berries produced by this coffee variety have another characteristic. The proportion of round beans is extremely high, reaching more than 80%, which is much higher than the proportion of round beans in other coffee varieties, which is about 5%.
Let’s do a little bit of science here.
Normally, each coffee berry contains two coffee beans (seeds), which are round and flat and stand together, called flat beans or lentils.
However, there are some berries with only one coffee bean inside, which are oval in shape and full of particles. They are usually called round beans or single beans.
Round bean coffee beans are highly regarded by coffee lovers as they have a richer aroma, and their price is several times higher than flat bean coffee beans of the same variety.
Although Jiahua Liangqiu Tea Company is not a big company, Gao Guoqing is more or less a manager dispatched by Jiahua to take charge of his own duties, so he has a deep understanding of the development strategy of Jiahua Investment Company.
He also spent nearly a week inspecting Chashan with Sun Dahai, and he also understood Sun Dahai's ideas very well.
Gao Guoqing knew that, similar to the Pu'er tea project he was currently running, the coffee variant discovered this time was likely to be valued by the company and Sun Dahai, leading to the formation of a new project.
Based on the above circumstances, Gao Guoqing couldn't wait any longer. After the last test result came out tonight, he couldn't wait to make a phone call. While congratulating the company's senior management and Sun Dahai, he also applied for authorization for the next step of work.
Chen Feng put down the phone and relayed the situation reported by Gao Guoqing to everyone.
Everyone turned to look at Sun Dahai at this time.
Sun Dahai, however, smiled and shook his head. He raised his hands and pointed at Chen Feng and Mark, saying that it was up to them to decide the matter and that he would not interfere.
This was originally within Jiahua Investment Company's own business scope, and Sun Dahai had no intention of overstepping his authority.
Besides, Chen Feng and other senior executives of Jiahua are gathered here now. They are professionals in this kind of project, and there is no need for boss Sun Dahai to take overstep orders.
